Josh Mandel Brings New Brand of Dishonesty

Congratulations are in order for Ohio
Treasurer Josh Mandel. As part of his U.S. senatorial campaign, Mandel, a
Republican, has earned his sixth “Pants on Fire” rating from
fact-checking website PolitiFact.

With the new award, half of Mandel’s
ratings are now “Pants on Fire,” “False” or “Mostly False.” If “Half
True” is included in the overall dishonesty rating, 68 percent of
Mandel’s ratings are dishonest.

It’s normal for campaigns to get some
facts wrong and spread dishonesty here and there, but to get this many
facts outrageously wrong is not. In comparison, Mandel’s Democratic
opponent, Sen. Sherrod Brown, has one “Pants on Fire” rating, three
“False” ratings, two “Mostly False” ratings and two “Half True” ratings.
Out of all his rated statements, only 25 percent have been declared
false or mostly untrue. If “Half True” is included in the overall
dishonesty rating, only 33 percent have been declared dishonest. That’s
half of Mandel’s false and dishonest ratings.

So what exactly has Mandel gotten wrong
since his campaign started? His false criticisms have mostly targeted
his opponent and President Barack Obama. Mandel earned his first “Pants
on Fire” rating when he said Brown is “out there egging on a lot of
these protesters who are spitting on policemen and going to the bathroom
on policemen’s cars at these protests on Wall Street and other places.”
That turned to be false since Brown actually advocated for nonviolent
protest. Mandel’s latest dishonest statement claimed that Brown had sent
billions of taxpayer dollars to foreign countries. Also false — Brown
did no such thing.

Mandel’s other “Pants on Fire” statements
were about Obamacare being the largest tax hike in history (it barely
cracks the top 10 tax hikes of the past 72 years), Brown giving bonuses
to executives (he actually voted for withholding bonuses), Brown being
one of the “main D.C.

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politicians responsible for Ohio jobs moving to
China” (nope) and Brown choosing “to side with Washington bureaucrats
and fringe extremists in the attacks on our natural resources” (only if
local leaders and a college president are fringe extremists).

Some of these might be fluff issues, but
most of them are serious, weighty issues. Obamacare is going to reshape
the United States’ health-care system. Jobs going overseas is a problem
that directly affects millions of Americans and Ohioans. The way the
United States is using its natural resources is a very valid concern.
But Mandel doesn’t seem to take these issues seriously enough to fact
check his claims before touting them out to the press and public.

To make matters worse, Mandel has said he doesn’t care if his statements are found to be dishonest. In an interview with The Cleveland Plain Dealer
earlier this year, Mandel told reporters that he will repeat his false
claims “again and again” because he sees no downside to it. And, indeed,
Mandel has continued using false platitudes to this very day.

Then Mandel told Ted Hart, an NBC
reporter, that he was “out of touch with reality” for questioning
Mandel’s false accusation that Brown wanted to give bonuses to business
executives.

Sadie Weiner, Brown’s spokesperson, fired
back at Mandel’s comments in a statement: “Mandel’s refusal to admit
he’s lying in the face of irrefutable evidence to the contrary is a
stunning example that he’s just another politician who can’t be
trusted.”

Even when Mandel isn’t perpetuating false
accusations, he can’t give a straight answer. In a recent interview
with Dayton’s WDTN, Mandel refused to answer whether he would have
supported the auto bailout or not. The reporter repeatedly reemphasized
the question, even directly asking, “You’re not going to answer the
question, are you?” The final time she asked, Mandel simply replied,
“Great seeing you.”

The dishonesty hasn’t stopped Republicans
from supporting Mandel. He has joined presidential candidate Mitt
Romney on the campaign trail in Ohio, and outside groups continue
throwing millions of dollars behind the Mandel campaign.

Fortunately, Mandel’s campaign seems to
be wrong about such dishonesty not being important. In some recent
polls, Mandel has been estimated to be losing quite badly to Brown. When
commenting on Mandel’s poor favorability numbers, a Public Policy
Polling statement said, “You’d be hard pressed to find a serious Senate
candidate in the country this year with worse favorability numbers than
those.” The same poll found Mandel was down 10 points against Brown — a
startling gap with less than three months left in the campaign season.